


Of Orchids and Honeycombs

by Intricate6



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Lack of Communication, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27553174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intricate6/pseuds/Intricate6
Summary: Where Jaemin and Yangyang are roommates and clueless idiots who both think the other is human when that couldn't be farther from the truth
Relationships: Liu Yang Yang/Na Jaemin
Comments: 11
Kudos: 137
Collections: '00 FIC FEST ROUND TWO





	Of Orchids and Honeycombs

**Author's Note:**

> prompt #00260, thank you so much to the amazing admin bom who ran this fest!

Jaemin looked at the clock and cursed under his breath. He was going to be late for physics if he didn’t hurry. He had spent way too much time on his makeup, but then again, the end result was definitely worth it. 

Jaemin spared himself one last glance in the mirror, admiring his light pink eyeshadow and the sparkles under his eyes before he ran out the door, barely remembering to grab his keys on his way out. Yangyang would kill him if he locked himself out of their dorm again. 

As Jaemin speed walked across campus, he found himself wishing that he could just fly, release his wings from where they were cramped against his back, trapped by his backpack, and take to the skies.Not only would he not have to dodge skateboarders and robots, but Jaemin loved flying. 

It was freeing to soar through the air, he felt so far away from his worries when his feet weren’t on the ground. 

However, when he chose to go to a predominantly human college, Jaemin knew he was going to have to give up flight while he was on campus. 

Humans tended to dislike supernatural creatures. And while relations had come a long way from the kill-on-sight policies that were in place just a hundred years ago, humans were still wary of the supernatural. 

Humans were afraid of things that were different than them, which Jaemin thought was quite unfortunate because their colleges were a lot better than those for Faeries and other supernatural creatures. All of the supernatural colleges focused less on true academia and more on powers and the environment and human studies. 

Those things were great and all, but Jaemin wanted to be a mechanical engineer. Human inventions fascinated him. It was amazing how many things they could power without magic. And now that relations were starting to improve, magic and technology were starting to combine, making the most wondrous inventions that Jaemin couldn’t wait to invent himself one day.

But for now, he had to focus on getting to class on time. Physics was already his worst subject and he couldn’t afford to be late and miss a single word of the lecture.

Physics was finally over and Jaemin’s head was spinning, but he at least had managed to make it on time, sliding into his seat just as the professor started the lecture on momentum. Jaemin had a feeling he was going to have to ask Yangyang for help with the homework. 

Yangyang was Jaemin’s roommate, randomly assigned by the university and a computer science major. So far he’d been nice. His taste in music was somewhat questionable in Jaemin’s eyes and he was human, but other than that they got along well. Yangyang was also quite good at physics which meant that most days he ended up helping Jaemin with his homework.

“Jaemin!” Jaemin looked up to see Jeno waving at him from across the green space. 

“Jeno!” Jaemin called back, jogging over to his friend. “How was bio?”

Jeno had taken the much more traditional route for a Faerie and majored in environmental sciences. Jaemin only half hated him for the fact that he had to choose something so boring and now they had no classes together. 

And because they were in different schools within the college, they were also in different dorms and Jaemin had to dorm with a human. A nice human, but a human nonetheless. 

“Bio was good, did you have fun in physics?”

Jaemin sighed. “No, I did not have fun in physics. I never have fun in physics. It almost makes me question my decision to become an engineer.”

Jeno laughed, his eyes crinkling with the action. “I told you to major in environmental sciences with me. It's so much fun and I don’t have to take physics.”

“My engineering classes are so much fun, though.” Jaemin swung his arm around Jeno’s shoulders. It was one Faerie habit that he could never quite get rid of, even if it did mean that most humans thought that Jeno and Jaemin were dating. 

“When do you have your next class?” Jaemin asked. 

“I have Environmental Sustainability at 11:30, but it’s on south campus, so I need to leave soon if I want to get there on time.”

Jaemin sighed and rested his head on Jeno’s shoulder. “You could stay here with me longer if you just took the buses.”

“There’s no way I’m getting in one of those cramped metal boxes with a ton of other students.” Jeno shuddered.

“It’s really not that bad.”

“Maybe I’ll try it one day. But not today. I don’t want to ruin my good mood.”

Jaemin slumped dramatically as Jeno detached himself from Jaemin to start walking to south campus. “I’ll see you at dinner!” Jeno called over his shoulder as he walked off, leaving Jaemin alone in the north quad. 

Jaemin sighed and sat down on the grass in the center of the quad. His next class was in 30 minutes and it wasn’t worth walking all the way back to the dorm just to instantly turn around and return back to north campus for his chem lecture. 

So instead, he pulled out his book for his Korean 100 class and started to read in the shade of the trees. After about 5 pages of the incredibly boring book, Jaemin started to question why an engineering major had to take a Korean class. Sure, it was to create a “well-rounded student” or whatever, but Jaemin did not think that rhetorical analysis was going to help him at all in the future. 

He should have been like Jeno and taken the nature writing class. That would have been so much more fun than having to suffer through lectures about analyzing an author’s purpose and having to write an occasional paper that had the prompt of “react to something”. Jaemin had no clue what he wanted to react to that didn’t directly involve him being a Faerie. 

Jaemin groaned and laid back on the grass. At least he had until the end of the semester to write his paper. 

But he only had until the end of the week to finish the book he was reading, so he picked it back up and tried to squeeze out another 5 pages before his lecture. 

\--------------------

Yangyang really hoped that Jaemin wasn’t coming back to the dorms in between classes. He hadn’t last week, but that didn’t mean much as a regular schedule seemed to mean nothing to his roommate. Admittedly, Yangyang wasn't much better, which was surprising for an Elf. Almost every other Elf Yangyang knew would plan out their day from the second they woke up to the moment they went to sleep, but Yangyang had never been fond of routines which is what had gotten him in this situation itn the first place. If Yangyang had just planned out his day and woken up a little earlier then he wouldn’t be in the predicament that he was currently in.

But no, he was incapable of planning ahead and was now standing in the middle of the dorm, magic ready to explode from his hands. 

As an Elf, Yangyang had to release his magic every day or else it would start to get explosive and he and Jaemin’s schedule had lined up in the exact wrong way yesterday, leaving Yangyang not a single opportunity to let out even a whisper of magic. 

And now he was standing in the middle of the dorm trying desperately to quell the itching and tingling beneath his skin that told him that his magic wanted to get out. 

When the feeling started to crescendo, Yangyang finally let loose, unable to hold it back anymore. Wind whipped through the dorm, ruffling Yangyang’s hair and blowing all of the papers off of his desk. 

It felt so good to finally release his magic that Yangyang almost didn’t release that he was failing to keep the chaos to his side of the dorm. 

There was a gust of wind barreling right towards the papers on Jaemin’s desk and the pictures on his wall. 

“No, no, no, don’t do that.” Yangyang threw out a hand, diverting the wind at the last second and saving Jaemin’s half of the room. 

Unfortunately, in his haste to save Jaemin’s belongings, Yangyang had paid no attention to his own. He watched in horror as the wind flipped his mattress off his bed and scattered his pens everywhere before blowing directly into his face. 

By the time the wind had finally died down, Yangyang’s side of the room looked like it had been ravaged by a tornado, which technically it kind of had been. At least he felt like he could finally breathe, the pressure of the magic was lifted off of his chest. 

Elemental magic was common amongst elves, but air was the most temperamental. Air magic wanted to fly free and hated being contained. Unlike fire magic that could just be satisfied by lighting a small flame every couple of days, air magic demanded daily use and had a tendency to explode if it didn’t get what it wanted. 

Yangyang’s parents had warned him when he chose to go to a human college that it was going to be difficult to give his magic the release it needed when he had a human roommate, but Yangyang hadn’t believed them, thought that he was going to be fine. 

Well, there he was, a couple of weeks in and very much not fine. Even after that explosive demonstration, his magic was still squirming under his skin. Yangyang hadn't realized how much he used his magic on a daily basis until he could no longer use it to throw his clothes on his bed or push himself faster on his skateboard. 

Humans may be magicless, but they could still feel a tingle whenever it was used, and sensitive ones could even smell magic for hours after it was used. Jaemin luckily didn’t seem to be too sensitive to magic as there were several times that Yangyang had forgotten to spray down the dorm after using his magic and Jaemin hadn’t said anything despite the fact that Yangyang could still sense the magic in the air. 

To be honest, Yangyang was just happy that he had never slipped up and used his magic while Jaemin was in the room. He was quite impressed with himself. At home he used his magic whenever he felt like it, so it was a difficult transition to make when he started college with a human roommate. 

But that was Yangyang’s own fault for not registering with the Supernatural Committee soon enough. He had done everything last minute like usual and missed the deadline, sticking him with a human roommate. 

But Jaemin was a great roommate, super clean, cute, cuddly, and his side was adorned with plants on almost every surface. It reminded Yangyang of his mother’s garden at home. If only humans weren’t so prejudiced against the supernatural. 

Yangyang sighed to himself and started cleaning up the mess that his magic had made. Luckily, it was past the time that Jaemin’s class started so Yangyang could safely use his magic to clean up the mess without worrying about Jaemin coming in. 

Yangyang’s first class wasn’t until 2:40, so after he was done cleaning, he started on some of his calc homework, wishing that they were allowed to use a calculator for the definite integrals, but of course their professor said they had to learn how to do it the hard way before they got to use the shortcut. 

\--------------

When Jaemin returned to the dorm after computer design, his last class of the day, he scrunched his nose at the smell of magic that permeated the air. What had he done to make the dorm smell so strongly? He usually didn’t do too much magic in the dorm besides the casual spell to help his plants grow. 

Maybe Jaemin’s nose was just especially sensitive lately due to the fact that he was no longer surrounded by magic. 

At least Yangyang seemed to have a weak nose since he hadn’t commented on the smell in the air. 

Nonetheless, Jaemin still sprayed down the dorm to be safe and then got to work on his chem homework, saving physics for when Yangyang got home so that they could work on it together. Jaemin always needed the extra help when it came to physics. 

Yangyang slammed open the door, causing Jaemin to jump as the handle hit the opposite wall with a loud bang, “Sorry, I always forget how light the door is,” Yangyang apologized, closing the door quietly. 

Jaemin clutched his hand over his wildly beating heart. “You know you could just say ‘hi Jaemin, I’m back’ instead of banging open the door and giving me a heart attack.” 

Yangyang slung his bag down next to his desk. “At least I’m not as loud as Donghyuck.”

“I’d be impressed if you found anyone as loud as Donghyuck,” Jaemin replied.

Donghyuck was in Jaemin’s physics class, but he was a computer science major like Yangyang and shared a fair amount of classes with him, which meant that Donghyuck was over at their dorm to study often. He almost made Yangyang seem quiet and reserved with how boisterous he was. 

“How was your lab?”

“It was okay, decently easy.”

“Have you done the physics homework yet?”

Yangyang laughed. “You just like me for my brain.”

“And you’re cute.” Jaemin smiled in victory as Yangyang choked at his words.

“Let’s, uh, get started on our physics homework.”

An hour and several physics problems later, Jaemin’s alarm went off, signifying that it was time for him to leave to go to dinner with Jeno. 

“Let’s finish this after I come back?” Jaemin asked as he grabbed his keys and phone.

“Sure, Renjun and I were going to get dinner soon anyways, so this is a good time for a break.”

“Jeno’s roommate? You know him?” Jaemin was surprised that Yangyang knew Jeno’s roommate. Renjun was an elf and a biology major--he definitely didn’t have any classes with Yangyang.

“I met him during orientation.I didn’t realize that Jeno was Renjun's roommate.”

“Huang Renjun?”

“Yeah that’s him.” Yangyang looked like he was contemplating saying something else, but just shrugged instead. 

Jaemin was tempted to stay and talk to Yangyang more about Renjun, but Jeno hated it when he was late. “Okay, I’m going to go now, see you in an hour or so.” 

When Jaemin saw Jeno, the first thing he said was “Did you know that Yangyang knows Renjun?”

“Hi to you too. And Renjun? My roommate Renjun?”

“Yeah your roommate. I made sure to specify.” 

“Huh, I’ll have to ask him about Yangyang when I get back.”

Jaemin hummed and hooked arms with Jeno. “So how were your classes today?” 

Jeno launched into a long explanation about solar energy and its efficiency and Jaemin smiled. He only understood every other word that was coming out of his friend’s mouth, but Jeno was clearly excited and Jaemin respected that. 

At the union, the pair got into the line for the burger place, Jeno still talking about solar energy when a couple of guys walked by. “Did you hear that there’s a sprite in our calc class? I don’t understand why those things are allowed in our university.”

“I agree. Supernatural creatures should stay in their own world and not cross into this one.”

“Exactly! All they do is sully all of our classes with their dumb brains and shit. Like they just aren’t fit for college, They have their own colleges in the Fae Realm or whatever.”

The group of boys continued walking until they were out of earshot.

Jeno had stopped talking and was now shaking in barely restrained fury and Jaemin wasn’t much better.

“Who are they to say that stuff? ‘Not fit for college’? Well I bet our grades are better than theirs any day of the week. And we should stay in our own realm? What, like how the humans stayed in their own mundane world when the border thinned? Yeah, I think not.” Jeno seethed.

Jaemin looked around in panic, not wanting to be hate crimed if someone overheard their conversation. But luckily, Jeno had the forethought to put up a glamor before he started talking. To humans it probably looked and sounded as if Jeno was still talking about solar energy. 

After ascertaining that they were safe, Jaemin turned to Jeno. “Humans are stupid. We know this. Don't let the opinion of some stupid boys drag you down. They mean nothing.”

“I know that! But it’s just so annoying that humans think that they can just walk into our territory and try to take over and then ban us from their realm in the treaty while they're more than welcome to just trespass on our land like they own the place, and we’re responsible for when they inevitably get hurt? And when the treaty is finally renegotiated to be fair, we still get attacked for going to college in the human realm when it’s quite literally our right to do so?” Jeno sighed in frustration. “I just hate everything. Why are humans so fucking entitled? They take whatever they want, but when we try to take what is rightfully ours they get all pissy about it?”

Jaemin looked at Jeno in shock, usually it was him who went off about the hypocrisy of society, not Jeno. And Jeno never cursed. Like ever. “I feel you my dude, but I have to ask, are you sure everything was okay today?”

“I'll tell you later,” Jeno said, dropping the glamor and stepping up to counter to order. Jaemin hadn’t even noticed that they were next in line. 

A few minutes later when they were sitting at a table eating their burgers, Jaemin snapped a glamor into place. “Okay spill,” he said to Jeno. “Something clearly happened today and as your best friend I am entitled to know.” 

Jeno sighed,setting down his burger. “It’s just that in my outdoor writing class the teacher said that he wanted to bring the class to the Fae Realm for our writing, but that it was such a hassle nowadays after the new treaty and how the Fae were so selfish for keeping all of their land to themselves.”

“To ourselves?” It was Jaemin’s turn to be outraged. “It’s not like the humans banned the supernatural from their land for over a 100 years after the Human-Fae War. And in that time humans felt like they could traipse across our land and get themselves killed because they don’t know the terrain and then they blame us and burn down our forests just because they can’t learn how to respect the environment. The forest is home to the sprites and fauns, and the humans ruined that. It’s only now that the trees are beginning to grow back and recover for goodness sake!.”

“Exactly! There’s a reason why humans now have to get permits and passports to cross into our land and it’s because they’re stupid and can’t learn how to respect the land. Humans are all about conquering when they should be learning how to coexist with nature instead of just destroying it.”

“Imagine feeling entitled to land that isn’t your own.” Jaemin snorted, “You could always complain to admin about your teacher.”

“Yeah, but honestly, one little comment isn’t worth it. If he says anything more I’ll report it, but admin would never do anything about something so small. He would just get a slap on the wrist and end up hating me for the rest of the semester. We knew what we were signing up for when we decided to go to a human college; this is honestly nothing.”

“True,” Jaemin dropped the glamor, energy drained from keeping it up for so long. Jeno was much better at them than Jaemin was. “That aside, did I tell you about my physics class today?”

\----------------------------

When Jeno got back to the dorm Renjun was sitting at his desk, already back from dinner. 

“Hey Renjun, do you know someone named Yangyang?”

Renjun turned around to look at Jeno, “Yeah I do, I just came back from dinner with him actually. Why do you ask?” 

“Oh, he’s Jaemin’s roommate and I just wanted to confirm that we were talking about the same Renjun.”

“Wait,” Renjun furrowed his brow, deep in thought. “So you’re saying that your childhood Faerie friend is roommates with my childhood Elf friend but they both think the other is human?”

“Yangyang is an Elf? He said that you two met at orientation.” 

Renjun started laughing. “Oh my gosh, this is better than a soap opera. Jaemin and Yangyang are roommates and are both supernatural, but the other thinks they’re human. The only thing better would be if they were secretly pining over each other.”

“We have to tell them. Jaemin is so worried that Yangyang would hate him if he found out Jaemin was a Faerie.” Jeno pulled out his phone to text Jaemin, but Renjun stopped him.

“No, don't tell them. I want to see how long they last before they figure it out for themselves. Plus, this is a great time for Yangyang to learn to actually control his powers, and I don't even have to worry about his roommate finding out he’s an Elf. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Jeno tilted his head in confusion. “You want your best friend to stress out over revealing himself to someone when it doesn’t even matter?”

“Don’t say it that way. I'm not a horrible person. I just want my friend to learn some discipline and observational skills. Plus, we can make a bet out of this. I bet you a honey comb that they won’t figure it out until the end of the semester when Yangyang slips up due to the stress of finals.”

“You have so much faith in both of them. I bet that Jaemin forgets and casts a spell in front of Yangyang who senses the magic around midterms.”

“Bold of you to assume that Yangyang would be that perceptive,” Renjuns scoffed as he held out his hand to shake.

“I don’t know, today Jaemin cast a glamor spell in the union, but forgot the cloaking part of it and if I didn’t catch it in time, the whole union would have reeked of magic in minutes.” 

“Oof, our friends really are idiots.” Renjun sighed. “I might have to change my prediction to match yours if Jaemin really is that much of a disaster.” 

Jeno smirked. “No you were the one who formed the bet, you have to stick with your original prediction.” 

“Fine,” Renjun groaned dramatically. “At least honeycombs are cheap in the Fae Realm.” 

\-------------------

A week later, Yangyang entered the dorm to find Jaemin hanging upside down off his bed, muttering words under his breath. 

“Uh, Jaemin? What exactly are you doing?” 

“Brainstorming for my Korean essay.”

“Upside down?”

“Yeah, the blood flows to my brain and helps me think. I can’t do writing stuff, if I’m an engineering major why do I have to take liberal arts classes?” 

“I bet the liberal arts students feel the same way about having to take science classes.”

“Yeah well maybe they need to realize science is just better.” Jaemin flipped off his bed, barely managing to twist his body in time to save his head from cracking against the floor. “At least there’s a correct answer in science and math classes, there is no ‘right’ answer in liberal arts.”

“I mean there is a wrong answer. You just don’t like it because you’re no good at it.”

“Hey! I have an ‘A’ in the class!” Jaemin chucked a pillow at Yangyang, but he easily dodged it.

“We’re literally like three weeks into the semester, of course you have an ‘A’.”

This time when Jaemin threw the pillow, Yangyang brought up his hands to deflect it with wind, before realizing at the last moment that he couldn’t use magic and ending up just dumbly getting hit in the face with the soft projectile.

Jaemin burst into laughter, but Yangyang wasn’t about to let him win. He grabbed the pillow beside him and launched himself at Jaemin who didn’t have any pillows left on his side.

Yangyang landed a solid hit on Jaemin’s face and continued to hit his roommate over the head until Jaemin grabbed Yangyang’s leg and yanked hard. Yangyang lost his balance, tipping backwards before thrusting his chest forward so as not to fall. Unfortunately he overcompensated and found himself landing on Jaemin’s chest, the pillow between them softening the blow. 

Yangyang laid on Jaemin’s chest, staring into the other’s brown eyes. He had never noticed how pretty Jaemin was until now when they were face to face. Jaemin’s face was perfect with his high cheekbones and sparkling eyes. 

“Enjoying the view?” Jaemin winked and Yangyang sputtered and rolled off of Jaemin, embarrassed that he had been caught staring. Yangyang covered his face with his hands, trying to hide his burning cheeks.

Suddenly there was a weight on his chest, and when Yangyang looked up it was Jaemin on top of him, the reverse of the position they had been in earlier. 

“Just thought that you should get a taste of your own medicine,” Jaemin smirked then licked his lips, holding eye contact with Yangyang the entire time. 

But before Yangyang could spontaneously combust, Jaemin rolled off of him and threw the pillow over Yangyang’s face. 

“Oh, I just figured out what to write my Korena essay on!”

“Just now?” Yangyang uncovered his face to see Jaemin seated at his desk, turning on his computer. “What was your idea?”

“It’s a secret.”

“A secret?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you when I’m done. I need to refine it first.”

“Oh okay,” Yangyang clambered to his feet. “I’m just going to work on my German homework.” he mumbled.

But Yangyang couldn’t focus on the textbook in front of him. He kept thinking of Jaemin underneath him, the way he smirked when on top of Yangyang, how he licked his lips.

Yangyang scrubbed his face with his hands. Was he developing a crush on Na Jaemin? His roommate? Was Yangyang really trying to make his life as dramatic as possible? This wasn’t something that happened in real life, no this was the sort of thing that you read in books, saw in movies. 

Yangyang was pretty sure that Jaemin was Bi or Pan. He shamelessly flirted with any pretty face. But then again, Jaemin literally flirted with  _ everyone _ . It was just how he communicated with people, so him winking at Yangyang and licking his lips was practically just Jaemin’s way of saying hi. It didn't mean that Jaemin liked him, much less found him attractive. 

And Yangyang didn’t even have a crush on Jaemin. He just found the other boy attractive and who wouldn't? Jaemin was gorgeous. That was just a fact, definitely not Yangyang’s gay brain developing a crush on his roommate. 

No, Yangyang wasn’t about to be that person. He was just going to do his German homework and not even think about Jaemin’s face for the rest of the day.

And Yangyang didn’t think about Jaemin’s face for the rest of the day, no, he thought of Jaemin for the rest of the week. 

Everytime Jaemin smiled, Yangyang couldn’t help but smile back. Everytime Yangyang closed his eyes, Jaemin’s face was there, the image of him looming over Yangyang and licking his lips was ingrained in his head. 

By the time the weekend rolled around, Yangyang was forced to realize that he had a full-blown crush on his roommate. 

That night at the library, Yangyang complained to Donghyuck about his crush on Jaemin as they tried to study for their computer science test on Wednesday. 

“He’s just so pretty and keeps winking and smirking at me and my poor heart can’t handle it. I can’t even focus when I’m in the dorm because I’m distracted by Jaemin’s face. He just looks so hot when he’s focusing. And when we work on Physics together he sticks his tongue out of the corner of his mouth when he’s solving a problem and it’s simultaneously the cutest and hottest thing I have ever seen.” Yangyang buried his face into his hands. “What am I going to do?”

“I’m not sure my dude, but you definitely have it bad.” Donghyuck clapped Yangyang on the back. “Any chance that he likes you back?”

“I doubt it. He literally flirts with everyone. He’s even flirted with you!”

“True,” Donghyuck tapped his pencil gainst his lips, “Buthe was definitely just joking with me, you know? Is it more serious when he does it to you?”

“There’s a difference in flirting?”

“Oh definitely. It’s all in the eyes, when someone is serious their eyes just focus on you as if they are drinking you in. It’s much more intense compared to when they’re just joking around.” 

“I can barely even look at his face without panicking. How am I supposed to know if he is serious or not?” Yangyang dramatically collapsed onto his notebook. “I’m just hopeless.”

“Now you got that right.” Donghyuck laughed, “Now if you are done with your little crisis could we get back to studying? I’m not looking to fail because you can’t figure out your love life.” 

“Thanks for your support,” Yangyang said dryly.

“Anytime. Now open up your textbook, we have a lot to cover.”

Yangyang ended up with a 75 on his computer science test whereas Donghyuck got an 87. “If you would have studied instead of thinking about Jaemin the entire time you could have done better.” Donghyuck sing-songed, waving his test in Yangyang’s face. 

“Oh shut up,” Yangyang muttered, showing his test into his backpack. He was going to have to focus for the rest of the year if he was going to get an A. 

“But seriously, you should just talk to him. Tell him how you feel.”

“There is no way I’m going to confess my love to Na Jaemin. Have you even seen him? He has the whole campus wrapped around his finger, I could never compare to all the girls and boys that are in love with him.”  _ Plus I’m an Elf and there’s no way I could keep that a secret for my boyfriend.  _ Jaemin added silently, not wanting to have that particular conversation with Donghyuck who was just a human. 

“Don’t sell yourself short.” Donghyuck chided. “Have you even looked in the mirror? I would totally date you if I wasn’t in love with Mark Lee, the TA in my English class.” 

“You have a crush on the TA?”

“Yes, and I go to all of his office hours and ask him for help with pretty much everything possible. I’ve honestly never had a higher grade.”

“If only I had a crush on the TA, maybe I’d have a higher grade in computer science.” 

Donghyuck just stared at Yangyang. “The TA is a girl. You’re gay.”

“Touche.” Yangyang slung his backpack over his shoulder. “Speaking of TA’s, we have lab in 30 minutes, what do you feel like doing?”

“Starbucks?”

Yangyang sighed. “Sure, but at this rate I’m going to run out of dollars on my meal plan.”

\---------------------------

Jaemin looked over his shoulder after hearing the door creak open to see Yangyang entering their dorm. 

“Hey! You’re just the person I wanted to talk to! Do you want to get dinner tomorrow? I feel like just the two of us haven’t hung out together in a while.”

“We literally live together,” Yangyang laughed nervously, afraid that he had been caught in his ploy to avoid Jaemin as much as possible.

“Yeah but you’re always studying at the library or at classes and stuff. It’ll be fun.”

“Sure, I have to finish my German homework first, though.”

“That’s fine, German takes you less than half an hour anyways.” 

Yangyang nodded, realizing that he had no way to get out of dinner without seeming like an asshole. It was fine though, he could definitely have dinner with Jaemin without spontaneously combusting. 

It turns out that Yangyang could not just have a nice dinner when it was Na Jaemin sitting across from him. Two seconds in and he had already spilled his drink and dropped half of his food onto his lap.

But of course his dumbass had shot out a gust of air to save his favorite pair of pants from being ruined and now he had to make up an excuse as to why he didn’t actually have any sauce on him, but it was on the chair next to him. Not to mention the way the air surrounding Yangyang now stunk of magic. 

“Oh wow, you didn’t get any sauce on your pants? That’s a skill.” Jaemin grabbed a wad of napkins, wrinkling his nose slightly as he leaned over to hand them to Yangyang.

Yangyang thought for sure that he was exposed, but Jaemin just furrowed his brow and sat back down with a smile.

Had he really not noticed? Did he not know what magic smelled like? Or was his nose just that weak? It was a small enough action that only the space directly around Yangyang’s seat reeked, but Jaemin should have been close enough to smell the magic or at least sense it.

Whatever the reason was, Yangyang wasn’t going to question it. He had already made a fool out of himself in front of his crush. He really didn’t need to add insult to injury by asking Jaemin if he had ever smelled magic before. 

For the rest of the dinner Yangyang was just going to focus on making semi-intelligent conversation and not spilling anymore food on himself. 

Jaemin sat across from Yangyang and pondered what had just happened. Had he really smelled magic when he handed the napkins to his roommate? Was Jaemin’s magic rubbing off on him? Did he need to tone down the spells on his plants and the basic cleaning spells that he cast when Yangyang was out of the dorm? He had thought he had sprayed enough Febreeze in the dorm to neutralize the scent, but he must have been mistaken. 

And what on earth had made the scent so strong? It wasn’t anything that anyone further away than a foot from Yangyang could smell, but it still shouldn’t have been so strong if it was from Jaemin’s spells. 

But then again, Jaemin hadn’t been around magic users other than Jeno in a while so maybe his nose was just extra sensitive, trying to alert him of his own kind when they were nearby, so the small spells he had cast were potent on another person. 

Just to be safe, he would text Jeno to come over to the dorm and tell him if it smelled too strong. Just because Yangyang very clearly had a bad nose and no sense for magic whatsoever didn’t mean that someone walking by their dorm couldn’t smell the residual magic. 

With that settled, Jaemin relaxed back into his seat and listened to Yangyang ramble on about his CS 105 course. His eyes lit up and his hands swept through the air as he talked, clearly immersed in the subject that Jaemin didn't understand in the slightest. 

But Yangyang was cute when he was happily talking about that he loved, his smile whenever Jaemin nodded along and asked questions was absolutely precious and Jaemin would do anything to protect it. 

\--------------------------

“Jeno!” Jaemin yelled, running across the quad after his best friend that was clearly trying his best to ignore him. “Can you come over to my dorm before dinner?” He panted, out of breath from his sprint with his heavy backpack.

“I got your text last night.” Jeno continued to walk.

“Great! Why didn’t you answer it?” 

“Becasuse you’re stupid. Why can’t you tell if you dorm stinks?”

“I’m probably used to it so I can't tell.”

“What about Yangyang? He also has a nose.”

“He’s also used to it. And he doesn't seem to have the greatest sense of smell.” Jamin jogged slightly to keep up with the fast pace tha Jeno was setting. 

Jeno sighed. “You Na Jaemin are an idiot.”

“Hey! What does that mean?”

“It means that I’ll check out your room for you.”

“Yes!” Jaemin wrapped Jeno in a big hug. “You’re the best.”

“Thanks,” Jeno huffed, now can you please let me get to class? Some of us have places to be.”

Jaemin slowly detached himself from his friend. “You know, it would be a lot faster if you just took the bus.”

Jeno shuddered. “That is where I draw the line. I would rather be late to class than take that death trap. All of those people together, breathing on me. I would rather not. I can barely even do cars.” 

Jaemin shuddered, thinking of the ride to university and being crammed into the back seat with Jeno who was holding up a bag the entire time just in case his stomach decided to empty its contents. It had been a painful three hours of Jeno bemoaning that fact that they couldn’t just fly to college as if he could carry all of his suitcases and boxes on his back. 

“You know, on second thought, I think that you should never take the bus.”

Jeno scoffed and walked even faster. “I’ll see you at 5:00,”

“Bye!” Jaemin waved his hand dramatically at Jeno’s retreating form, but his best friend didn’t even spare him a glance. 

“Oof, rejection hurts,” a girl standing next to Jaemin said.

“I--we’re just friends.”

“That’s what they all say, but friends don’t hug like that.”

Jaemin just gave her a closed lipped smile and turned around to head to Korean. Humans were so weird with their rules about touching and whatnot. Jaemin didn’t understand why you had to be dating to hug and cuddle with your friends. 

Wait. 

He had been pretty tactile with Yangyang, rolling over on top of him, greeting him with hugs, and acting cute constantly. Was his roommate weirded out by his behavior? Was Yangyang avoiding him because Jaemin made him uncomfortable? Maybe he should tone it down a couple of levels. Yangang was human after all and they were particular about that sort of thing. 

From now on, Jaemin would try to keep all of his excessive touchiness reserved for Jeno.

At 5:00 sharp, a knock sounded on Jaemin’s door and as he got up to answer it he couldn't help but wonder if Jeno just always had impeccable timing, or if he was just early and waited for 5:00 on the dot to knock in order to keep up his image. 

“So how does it smell?” Jaemin asked the minute he opened the door.

“Uh, not that much? I can’t really smell anything from the hallway, Jaemin.”

“Great.” Jaemin stepped aside to let Jeno into the dorm. “I was hoping that it didn’t smell too strong.”

“No, not really.” Jeno stood in the middle of the room and took a sharp inhale through his nose. “I can’t really smell anything except...Febreeze? Really Jaemin? You spray Febreeze to cover up the smell of magic?”

“Uh, yes? I mean it works. Febreeze actually does a good job of neutralizing scents.”

“So do air purifiers or diffusers. You have so many plants, you could definitely find a way to make the room smell good without using Febreeze.”

Jaemin shrugged. “Yangyang doesn’t complain about it.”

“Yangyang also has no taste. I guess you two really are perfect for each other.”

“Hey!” Jaemin pouted. “If he was here right now he would be offended. But since he isn’t I am offended for him and you have to cuddle to make it up to me.”

Jeno accepted the offer and folded into Jaemin’s arms. “I’ve been robbed of my cuddles recently because humans are weird.” Jaemin complained. 

“Oh poor baby,” Jeno teased, petting Jaemin’s hair. “Are you touchstarved after being at a human college for a month?”

“Yes, you’re so lucky that your roommate is an Elf and you can cuddle with him whenever you want.”

Jeno snorted. “Renjun isn’t exactly the cuddly sort. He only likes curling up with others when he’s tired.”

“At least that’s better than Yangyang, he’s been avoiding me lately and I think it’s because I’m too touchy. Humans are so weird.”

“Yangyang is probably just busy with his classes and stuff. Didn’t you say that he has a busy schedule?” 

“Just in the afternoons, but he sleeps all morning.”

“See it’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure that everything is fine between you and Yangyagn and you didn’t make him uncomfortable by being clingy.”

“‘M not clingy.”

“Whatever you say.” Jeno’s hand moved to where Jaemin’s wings were tightly tucked against his back and started to massage the tired muscles.”

“Oh, that feels so good, when are we going to go flying again? My wings are so tired of being cooped up. I can’t even properly let them out at home unless I’m sure that Yangyang won't be here.”

“We can probably go either this weekend or next. And why don’t you just glamor your wings so that you can stretch them out?”

“It takes way too much effort and then the room reeks of magic. I’m not as good at glamors as you are.”

Jeno rolled his eyes. “Literally just cast a cloaking spell so that it doesn’t smell of magic? And you held the glamor in the union well that one day.” 

“Huh, I never thought about using a cloaking spell. This is why you were the top of our class.”

Jeno pressed down hard on a tight spot where Jaemin’s wings met his back. “You never paid attention. And please promise me that you’d stretch them out for at least an hour every day. It’s really not healthy for you to have them so tight against your back constantly. If you’re not careful you could lose the ability to fly.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Jaemin, I am literally massaging the muscle right now, is it supposed to hurt this much?” Jeno dug his fingers into a particularly aggressive knot, making Jaemin’s back go tingly and causing him to jerk away in pain.

“Okay, I get your point.” I’ll stretch them everyday and we go flying Saturday?”

“Fine, but only because I know you’ll be insufferable if you have to relearn how to fly when the semester is over and we’re back home.”

“Thank you Jeno! You’re the best!” Jaemin squeezed Jeno even tighter. 

“Mhmm, now can we go to dinner? I’m really hungry.” 

“Anything for my best friend.” 

\-----------------

Yangyang got back to the dorm at 7:00 and upon noticing that Jaemin wasn’t there, used the wind to bring his backpack over to his desk, grateful for the relief the small motion brought. In the middle of opening his backpack and taking out his notebooks, Yangyang heard the key turn in the lock and dropped the notebooks hovering in mid air right before Jaemin entered the room. 

The notebooks fell to the floor, all of the loose papers Yangyang had stored in them flying everywhere.

“Oh, sorry, did I startle you? Let me help pick these up.” As Jaemin knelt to pick up some of the paper, he wrinkled his nose and tilted his head to the side. Yangyang held his breath, certain that he had just been caught, but Jaemin just shook his head and handed the papers to Yangyang who was frozen with horror.

“Are you alright? Sorry that I scared you, Jeno and I had an early dinner.”

“Oh, uh, that’s alright. I just wasn’t paying attention.” Yangyang laughed nervously and focused on picking up the paper on the ground, refusing to look Jaemin in the eye. 

Once Yangyang had all of his mixed up papers in hand and notebooks stacked on the desk, he dared to look back up at Jaemin who just smiled at him. 

“Are you still up for working on the physics homework together? Or do you have other homework you need to do first?”

“We can work on physics now if you want,” Yangyang said, clutching his papers to his chest as if they would protect him against Jaemin’s smile and good looks.

“Great! Let me just grab my notebook and boot up my computer!”

As Jaemin did that, Yangyang worked on calming down his racing heart. He had absolutely no clue how Jaemin was so clueless, Yangyang had practically used magic right in front of him, but Jaemin was still none the wiser. Yangyang would be impressed if he wasn’t lso absolutely terrified. He was definitely going to need to text Renjun about this. 

“Oh I almost forgot to tell you. Jeno and I are going hiking on Saturday, so I’ll probably be gone for most of the day,” Jaemin said as he sat down on the floor next to Yangyang with his computer and physics notebook in hand.”

“Oh cool, where are you going?” Yangyang asked, sliding out of his chair to sit on the floor next to Jaemin. 

“I’m not entirely sure, probably somewhere in biking distance since Jeno hates cars and buses.”

Yangyang laughed. “I bet that was fun getting over here, you two carpooled right?”

“Yeah. It was awful. He just complained the entire time and we had to stop so often so that he could breathe fresh air.”

“Please remind me never to get into a car with him.”

“Believe me, that won’t be a problem. The next time he’s getting into a car will probably be when the semester is over.”

“Whatever works for him.” Yangyang opened up his computer and navigated to the site they used to do their physics homework. “Okay so for problem one I would probably use Newton’s Second Law?”

“Everything uses Newton’s Second Law,” Jaemin groaned, copying the problem down onto his page. 

An hour and a half later, they had finally finished the last problem. “I hate physics,” Jaemin groaned. “And I still have a rough draft to do for my essay.”

“You got this,” Yangyang said, waiting for Jaemin to return to his desk like he normally did after they finished their physics homework, but Jaemin didn’t budge from his spot on the ground and instead opened the document for his essay. 

“Everytime I get distracted you need to yell at me to focus,” Jaemin said with faux seriousness. 

“Sure,” Yangyang responded, having no intention of yelling at Jaemin. 

Another hour passed and Jaemin was now watching BuzzFeed Unsolved. He claimed it helped him to focus. Two episodes later Yangyang was starting to doubt that, but then again, he had been watching Netflix, so it’s not like he had any room to talk. 

At midnight, Yangyang had finished his homework by some miracle and Jaemin was on the conclusion paragraph of his essay, having taken many breaks and even completed his post lab questions for chem in the middle of his second and third body paragraphs. 

“I did it! I submitted my rough draft.” Jaemin leaned into Yangyang’s side. “It really was rough.” 

A few seconds later when Jaemin still hadn’t maved from Yangyang’s side, Yangyang looked over to check on Jaemin. The other had seemingly fallen asleep on his shoulder. Staying up until 3 am finishing a Netflix show last night coupled with an early class today must have wiped Jaemin out because Yangyang couldn’t remember a day that Jaemin had gone to bed so early. 

Yangyang didn’t have the heart to move Jaemin so he just finished the season of the show he was watching before drifting off leaning against Jaemin. 

Jaemin woke up pressed against Yangyang’s side with his head resting on the other’s shoulder. He didn’t remember falling asleep. 

After groping around for his phone, Jaemin finally touched he hard surface of its screen and a quick look showed that it was 3 am. Jaemin sighed and carefully extracted himself from Yangyang’s side. 

It was a sad sight to see Yangyang sleeping on the floor with his neck at an awkward angle and he had let Jaemin use him as a pillow. Jaemin at least owed him for that.

Jaemin slid one arm under Yangyang’s legs and the other around his shoulder and hefted him up onto his bed in a fluid motion. Jaemin was immensely grateful that Yangyang had his bed relatively close to the floor unlike Jaemin whose bed was past his waist.

Jaemin carefully pulled Yangyang’s blankets over his sleeping body, impressed by how sound of a sleeper his roommate was. But then again, Yangyang never seemed to get enough sleep. Jaemin was surprised that he was asleep at 3 am. 

But then again, the last time that Jaemin remembered it was midnight, so maybe Yangyang fell asleep shortly after him. Either way, Jaemin felt a burst of fondness as he looked at Yangyang sleeping peacefully. Yangyang hadn’t pushed Jaemin off when he leaned on his shoulder, had even let him fall asleep there. Maybe Yangyang could be one of his cuddle buddies. He’d have to be careful about the wings, but maybe Jaemin could be more touchy with his roommate.

Jaemin smiled at the thought of having another person to cuddle with before stumbling over to his own bed to go to sleep.

\-----------------------

“Renjun!” Yangyang practically screamed into the phone. 

“What are you screaming for? It’s way too early in the morning for this.”

“It’s literally 10:00. It’s not my fault that you stayed up late studying. Plus on Thursdays Jaemin has his 8:00 am lab so he’s safely out of the dorm.”

Renjun sighed. “You prefacing the conversation by saying that it’s safe to talk because your roommate isn’t there is never a good sign.”

Yangyang ignored Renjun and continued on. “So last night I thought that Yangyang wouldn’t be back from dinner until 8:00 like usual, but he and Jeno went out early and he was back at 7:00 right when I was in the middle of flying my notebook over to me.”

“Oh?” Renjun suddenly sounded a lot more awake. “Does he know you’re an Elf now?”

“No, I managed to drop them in time, but all of the loose papers that I keep inside of my notebooks went everywhere and Jaemin helped me pick them up, but he definitely smelled the magic in the room, I mean it’s not like I had any time at all to neutralize the scent and he wrinkled his nose and everything, but he didn’t say anything? Does he just not know what magic smells like? Are some humans that sheltered? I literally cannot think of any other explanation for this. How did I so royally screw up and not get caught?” 

“You woke me up to tell me this?” Renjun did not sound impressed in the slightest. “Yangyang please never call me this early in the morning ever again unless it’s actually something important.” There was a click as Renjun hung up. 

Yangyang sighed. Renjun and he clearly had a different definition of “important”. This is why he didn’t tell Renjun about his crush on Jaemin, his childhood friend would just make fun of him for calling for his human roommate. 

Donghyuck, however, would care about the events that transpired last night--other than the supernatural aspect of it, of course, Donghyuck was only human. 

Yangyang dialed Donghyuck’s number and his friend answered on the third ring, his “hello?” sounding very groggy as if he had just woken up.

“You’ll never guess what happened last night with Jaemin.”

“Oh, do tell.”

“So after doing our physics homework, he stays on the floor next to me instead of going to his desk like usual and then after completing all of his homework he leans on my shoulder and falls asleep there! Like full body pressed against mine, asleep on my shoulder. I about combusted right then and there. And then I woke up this morning in my bed after falling asleep next to him which means that Jaemin woke up in the middle of the night and moved me to my bed! Can you believe how ice he is? I probably would have just left him on the floor.”

“See I told you that he likes you back.” Donghyuck sing-songed into the phone.

“What do you mean?”

“No one just chooses to stay on the floor and fall asleep there for someone that they don’t like. It’s definitely a sign.”

‘“Donghyuck. There is no way that Na Jaemin likes me, he’s just really touchy and stuff. Him and Jeno are always hugging and linking arms and stuff. Plus, Jaemin always gets super clingy when he’s tired and he hadn’t had his nightly coffee last night.” 

“Whatever you say.” The disbelief was clear in Donghyuck’s voice.

“Hyuck I really am serious, don’t do anything rash like telling Jaemin or something.”

Donghyuck gasped. “I would never! How dare you think so low of me! I was just thinking that the three of us should study for physics or do homework together sometime since we’re all in the same class.”

“Oh, that’s actually a really good idea. I forget that we all have physics together since I usually just study it with Jaemin and other stuff with you.”

Donghyuck sighed. “Just set up a date and time, you know when both Jaemin and I are available.”

Their conversation strayed into the people that Donghyuck found cute in their classes then that eventually lead to a discussion about their professors and whom they liked the best. They continued talking until they both had to go to class. 

\---------------------------

Saturday finally rolled around and Jaemin was up and ready to go by 6:00 am, too excited by the chance to fly to be tired, but the two cups of coffee he had drank certainly didn’t hurt. 

He closed the door quietly behind him, not wanting to wake up Yangyang when the sun was barely peeking above the horizon, and bounded down the stairs to where Jeno was waiting with his bike. 

“So where are we going?” Jaemin asked as he hopped onto his bike.

“There’s some trails like 20 miles south of campus that look good, we can bike a few miles out onto the trails and then stash the bikes off the trail and fly far enough off the trails that no one wll see us.”

“Sounds great!” Jaemin started to bike after Jeno, playing music out of the speaker stashed in his backpack for the bike ride. 

But Jaemin greatly underestimated the time it would take them to bike 20 miles and when they were finally at the trailhead an hour and 45 minutes later, he was ready for a snack break. “Hold up for a second Jeno, it’s time for food. You didn’t tell me that it would take this long to bike 20 miles.”

“You didn’t seem to have any hardship with all of the singing I heard.”

Jaemin slung his arm over Jeno’s shoulder and used his other hand to open his bag. “You have to keep it interesting somehow.”

“Wait, exactly how much food did you pack?” Jeno asked, staring at Jaemin’s bag in shock. “You have enough to feed a small army.”

“Well I knew we were going to have to bike and that would make me hungry and then we would also be flying which would also make me hungry, and we would have to bike back to campus which would also make me hungry. I figured you would eat some of my food too, so I packed extra.” 

Jeno stared at Jaemin in disbelief. 

“So do you want a breakfast bar or not? I have your favorite.”

“I’ll have one please.” Jeno’s hunger won out over his disbelief. “Why do you only plan well at random times, like why couldn’t you have planned ahead last year when you decided to go on a hike by yourself and ended up getting lost with only one bottle of water and an apple?”

“Because I learn from my mistakes,” Jaemin replied, his mouth full of food.

Jeno rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything else, and soon they were biking along the trail, looking for a good point to split off and stash the bikes. Jeno picked a spot after struggling to bike along the dirt trail for two miles and they hid their bikes 200 meters off the trail in a dogwood of young trees. 

Jaemin was ready to start flying right then and there, but Jeno made him walk another 800 meters into a small clearing just to be safe even though they hadn’t seen a single person for the past hour. Jaemin thought it was over the top. But then again, Jaemin wasn’t known for having the most common sense out of the two of them. 

That point was proven even farther when Jeno announced that they were in a good enough area that they could start flying and easily unfurled his gossamer wings.

“Wait,” Jaemin looked at Jeno in panic. “I forgot to wear my shirt with the slits in it for my wings.”

“My best friend is an idiot,” Jeno muttered, “But a predictable one.” He opened up his backpack and threw a shirt at Jaemin. “I had a feeling you would do something like this.”

“Jeno you are a lifesaver,” Jaemin said, taking off his shirt and putting on the shirt that Jeno had thrown to him. Jaemin then stretched out his wings, sighing at how good the action felt. 

“You haven’t been properly stretching out your wings everyday, have you?”

“It’s too difficult to predict Yangyang’s schedule and I always forget to do it during the times I know he’s in class. And how did you know that?”

Jeno rolled his eyes. “Just set alarms then. And I can see the way you winced when you fully extended your wings, they’re always cramped against your back so now the muscles are stiff.” 

“You worry too much.”

“We’ll see about that.” Jeno jumped into the air and easily started to beat his wings, hovering near Jaemin. 

Jaemin followed suit, struggling slightly more than Jeno as his muscles protested at the motion, but he was in the air and that was all that mattered. With every flap of his wings Jaemin could feel his muscles loosen a little more, the tightness slowly working its way out of the muscles that had been left unused for far too long. 

Jeno shot up into the air with a playful smile and Jaemin instinctually followed; however, when he reached where Jeno was, Jeno relaxed his wings and let himself plummet towards the ground, flapping furiously at the last second to prevent himself from actually making contact with the grass below them. 

Jaemin wasn’t stupid enough to believe that his wings were in any state to pull of that stunt, so he simply glided down to where Jeno was somersaulting in mid-air. 

“I get your point,” Jaemin sighed.

“Oh do you?”

“Yes, I can’t do the tricks that you can because my wings are weaker than yours.”

“So you’ll stretch out your wings everyday for at least an hour?”

“I’ll try my best and set alarms.”

Jeno grinned triumphantly before flying into the trees, in the opposite direction of the trail to be safe. 

Jaemin followed his friend, but traveling at a much slower pace, scared of hitting his wings on one of the trees, their bark didn’t seem very forgiving and Jaemin definitely didn’t have the spatial awareness of his wings that he once had. His body felt heavy and clunky in a way that it normally didn’t. 

Jaemin was used to being a faster and overall better flier than Jeno, so the heaviness in his back was surprising. But then again, Jaemin flew almost everywhere in the Fae Realm and even had competed in a couple of races whereas this was his first time flying in the Human Realm since he had arrived a little over a month ago. 

An hour later, Jaemin was feeling much better about flying and his wings were now fully warmed up. 

“Jeno, want to race?” 

“Sure, to where? I’m going to win though.”

“To that rock?” Jaemin pointed to a large rock that was about 400 meters away. “And I wouldn’t be so sure about your victory.”

“Whatever you say.”

Jeno and Jaemin both moved into position behind a line Jaemin had etched in the dirt and after a count of three they were off, flapping their wings as fast as possible as they wove through the trees, branches hitting Jaemin in the face as he focused more on speed then on complete accuracy. A few scratches would be nothing in comparison to the look on Jeno’s face when he beat him. 

Jaemin’s eyes stayed glued on the rock in front of him and he used his hind wings to direct himself around the trees, his forewings flapping as fast as possible, his muscles burning with the strain. But he was almost there, so close to victory.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaemin spotted Jeno, they were neck and neck with less than 50 meters to go.

With a burst of determination, Jaemin flapped his wings in as big of a stroke as he could, testing the flexibility of his tight muscles. Despite the way his muscles protested at the movement, Jaemin shot forward and touched the rock right before Jeno.

“I win!” he cried, looking over his shoulder to gloat, the force of his last flap still propelling him forward.

“Jaemin!” Jeno yelled, reaching out as if he was trying to grab Jaemin.

Jaemin looked forward just in time to scrape his face on the branch in front of him, the force of the blow sending his body sideways into the tree, his left side scraping against the bark before he hit the ground. 

“Ow that hurt,” Jaemin groaned, peeling open his eyes to see a worried Jeno hovering over him. 

“You, Jaemin are an absolute fool. You know how to fly in forests, why on earth did you not look to see where you were going?”

“I had to gloat about my win, trees were the last thing on my mind.”

Jeno sighed. “Are you seriously hurt? Is your wing okay? Any broken bones?”

“I dunno,” Jaemin tried to sit up and winced at a stab of pain in his side. “That kinda hurt.”

Jeno grabbed Jaemin’s arm that didn’t scrape against the tree and helped him into a sitting position. “I’m going to check out your wing now, okay? Everything else just looks like scrapes and bruises, but I want to make sure that your wing isn’t torn or anything.”

Jaemin obediently leaned forward while Jeno carefully unfurled Jaemin’s wing and inspected it, running his hands over the sensitive surface to brush off the bits of bark that had stuck to the membrane.

“Does it look okay? Can I still fly today?”

“Of course that’s what you’re worried about. You’re not bleeding, so nothing actually breached the membrane and I don’t see any tears. At most you just scraped off a couple of scales, but that should heal just fine.”

Jaemin sighed in relief. He had torn his wing once when he was a kid and that had been a pain to heal. Their wings were very thin and made of two layers of membrane with veins supplying blood flow along with nerves that made their wings sensitive to the air which aided them in telling the wind speed and how to adjust their wing strokes accordingly. Due to the structure of their wings, it took weeks for a tear to repair itself, even with the aid of magic and Jaemin still had a scar from the whole ordeal.

“Stay here, I’m going to go grab the first aid kit.” 

“The first aid kit?”

“Yeah, I know you so I packed a first aid kit. Now please don’t move while I go to get it.”

Jaemin sighed as Jeno took off flying. Of course Jeno was extra enough to bring a first aid kit, but then again, Jaemin couldn't really complain since he had ended up needing it. 

Jaemin sat up a little further and winced at the pain in his side. He looked down to see Jeno’s shirt ripped and his side covered in bleeding scratches. If that was how his side looked after sliding down the tree, what did his face look like? His cheek was throbbing in pain, but it honestly didn’t feel too bad now that the initial sting was gone.

Jaemin brought up his hand to prod at the sensitive area and instantly winced in pain. That was definitely going to bruise. 

Jeno returned just then, flying with both his own bag and Jaemin’s in his arms. 

“I figured you would want your snacks to distract you while I clean out your wounds. 

“You know me too well,” Jaemin smiled, digging a bag of potato chips out of his backpack. 

However, his happiness was short lived as Jeno used a wet wipe to clean his wounds.

Jaemin dropped a chip at the sudden pain. “Jeno, you have to warn me before you do that, you made me waste a chip,” he whined. Jeno just ignored him and continued to clean up the scrapes before putting a huge bandaid over the worst parts. Luckily none of the scrapes were deep, the shirt ended up taking the brunt of the damage. 

Jeno then moved on to Jaemin’s wing, gently smearing a poultice over the parts that had the scales scraped off. Jaemin was surprised that Jeno even had a poultice to help heal injured wings in his backpack, but he probably shouldn’t have been. Jeno was always prepared for anything.

“Okay, I’m going to clean your face now.”

“I have a scrape on my face?” Jaemin thought that it was just bruised.

“It’s really small and not even bleeding, I’m just being cautious.”

Jaemin sighed, but sat still as Jeno dabbed the wipe on his face. Finally, Jeno sat back on his heels and gave Jaemin a nod before starting to put the first aid kit back in his bag.

“So can I still fly?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing serious. Just finish eating your chips first.”

The rest of the day passed without consequence as Jaemin and Jeno spent several more hours in the forest, playing games, weaving through the trees (successfully this time), and just having a great time flying. 

But Jaemin tired sooner than usual and Jeno wanted to get back to finish a lab report, so they headed back to their bikes shortly after lunch time and biked back to the dorms. Jaemin complained the whole time about how the ride was uphill and too far away and that his legs were tired. 

He was honestly kind of impressed that Jeno didn’t just leave him behind to make his way back by himself, but his friend must have felt bad for him because Jeno even stopped for two snack breaks on the ride back. 

Overall, it had been an amazing day and was definitely worth the full-body soreness that Jaemin experienced the next day. Although, Yangyang was probably tired of hearing how sore Jaemin was from his “hike”. But then again, his roommate had practically been on the ground rolling in laughter when Jaemin told him he got hurt from racing Jeno and biking into a tree, so Jaemin didn’t feel too bad if he was being annoying with his complaining.

\----------------------------

Several days passed without incident and Jaemin even kept his promise to set alarms to stretch out his wings when Yangyang had class. It felt so much better than just stretching them out for a couple of minutes everyday in a cramped bathroom stall. It still wasn’t ideal by any means, but Jaemin’s muscles were less tight than they had been before his daily stretching. 

He was still jealous of Jeno who could walk around his dorm with his wings out no problem since he didn’t have to hide anything from Renjun. At this rate, Jeno was most definitely going to be faster than Jaemin the next time they raced. 

Jaemin sighed and went over to take care of his plants. He had only brought two of them with him to college, but somehow they had multiplied and Jaemin’s windowsill was covered as well as the top of his shelves. 

Jaemin started the watering process, filling up a cup from the sink and touching the leaves of each plant to determine how much water they needed before giving them their desired amount. 

The orchid, as usual, was being difficult and it took several minutes of Jaemin’s coaxing and encouraging whispers for the plant to finally open up to him. And then Jaemin was flooded with more information than he ever desired. The orchid wanted slightly more sun, but only between the hours of 12 and 2; little water, but a steady supply of it; a bigger pot; more breathable soil; and a 10% increase in humidity. 

“I can’t increase the humidity,” Jaemin tried to reason with the plant, but it visibly wilted in protest. “Okay, okay. I’ll increase the humidity and get you a new pot today with better soil, is that good?”

The orchid didn’t respond, which Jaemin took to be a good sign, but now Jaemin had to go to the store to buy a bigger pot and figure out how to provide more humidity to the orchid without using magic noticeable to Yangyang. But then again, the windowsill might be far enough on Jaemin’s side that it wouldn’t matter. 

For the time being, Jaemin cast a simple spell to create a bubble of air with higher humidity around the orchid and grabbed his keys and wallet to walk to the store. Orchids were known for being overdramatic when potted and since Jaemin had already finished his classes for the day, he figured that he might as well go to the hardware store down the street. 

When Jaemin returned an hour and a half later, Yangyang was sitting at his desk and gave Jaemin an incredulous look when he came in. “You got another plant?”

Jaemin looked down to the dying petunias in his arms. “They needed my help! I swear I only went to the store to get a bigger pot for the orchid because it was getting root bound, but then I saw this plant too and it was practically begging for me to help it.” 

Yangyang sighed and pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Texting Jeno that you got another plant.”

“How do you have Jeno’s number?”

“We have calc together.”

Jaemin looked at Yangyang in shock. “I didn’t know that you two had a class together. How did I not know that?”

“It just never came up, but I have his number since we text each other for help on the homework. Oh, and he says that you need to stop and that the petunias probably would’ve been fine without you.” 

“Tell him that they were begging for my help and I just couldn’t leave them to die a horribly slow death in that store.” Jaemin then went to his plant corner and started the process of transplanting the orchid into the new pot and putting the petunias into the orchid’s old pot. 

When Jaemin pulled the orchid out of its old pot, Jaemin realized that it wasn’t horribly root bound, but just being dramatic. Orchids were normally particular, but when they talked to you, they seemed to get 100 times more finicky. 

Jaemin had already put the orchid in special breathable soil, but when transplanting, he made sure that the soil was loosely packed. After making sure that everything was perfect, Jaemin put the orchid in its new pot back into the humidity bubble he had made for it. Yangyang hadn’t said anything, so Jaemin assumed that he couldn’t sense the spell from the other side of the room. 

Jaemin then moved onto the poor withering petunias. They probably needed more light and less water than they were receiving at that store. Some loving care and they’d be back to healthy in no time. 

Just as Jaemin finished transplanting the petunias and whispered encouragement to the browning flowers, his alarm went off. 

“It’s already time to meet Jeno?” Jaemin muttered to himself and brushed off the dirt from his pants before hurrying to meet Jeno.

“The petunias needed your help?” Jeno asked as soon as he saw Jaemin.

“Yes! You didn’t see them, they were so sad. They basically begged me to help them and I just couldn’t say no.”

Jeno rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say flower boy. By the way, you have dirt on your face.”

“It enhances my beauty, kind of like a beauty mark.”

“Whatever you say.”

\---------------------------

“Are you good?” 

Jaemin looked up from where he was laying on the ground with his hand thrown over his eyes. 

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look like it,” Yangyang said, setting his bag down, then moving to sit next to Jaemin.

“I just took a chem test and I’m pretty sure I failed it, so now I’m laying on the ground.”

Yangyang looked at his phone to see the time. “It’s 4:00, your chem class is over at 1:15.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m no longer crying.”

Yangyang sighed. “Do I need to call Jeno for emotional support?”

“No, he has more important stuff to do than worry about me. I'll be fine.”

“Do you need a hug?”

Jaemin nodded and all but threw himself into Yangyang’s lap. Yangyang wrapped his arms around Jaemin and held him close, while Jaemin buried his head in Yangyang’s chest. 

Belatedly Jaaemin realized that Yangyang’s hands were right near his wings, but the human didn’t say anything and Jaemin was too drained to care, so he just pressed himself even closer to Yangyang.

After a couple of minutes, Yangyang started to stroke Jaemin’s hair and Jaemin felt himself fully relax into the touch, the rhythmic motion exactly what he needed to calm his mind. 

It was silly to be so worked up over a test that he didn’t even have the results of yet, but Jaemin had just felt so clueless while taking it, had felt like he knew nothing. Jaemin had wanted to prove in college that he deserved to be there just as much as any human, that Faeires weren’t stupid like most humans assumed, but so far he just seemed to be proving them right. If he couldn't even do well on the first test of the year, then how was he supposed to succeed in college?

Struggling that much on something that should have been easy made Jaemin feel like a complete idiot. Sure, he couldn’t expect to do perfectly on everything in college, but doing poorly on his first test just felt like failure to Jaemin. 

“Do you want to go to Starbucks or something?” Yangyang asked, still running his hands through Jaemin’s hair.

Jaemin shook his head. “Don’t want to move.”

“Okay, later then.” 

Jaemin was pretty sure that he was never going to move again, but he didn’t tell Yangyang that and just stayed with his head buried in his roommate’s chest. 

About half an hour later, Jaemin was starting to feel better. “Can we go for that Starbucks now?” he asked, pulling away slightly from Yangyang.

“Sure.”

Jaemin smiled, the action feeling slightly forced, but at least he now felt good enough to fake it. 

After ordering his iced coffee however, Jaemin was starting to feel like his normal self and on the walk back to the dorm he talked to Yangyang about  _ Twilight  _ which he had forced the other to watch with him the night prior. 

“I just think that Bella could have done so much better. Like her and Edward were just not it.” Jaemin complained.

“Not to mention that the depiction of vampires wasn’t accurate at all. Vampires would never live in a human town undercover, they’re way too stuck up for that. And sparkling in the sun? That’s just ridiculous.”

Jaemin stopped to look at Yangyang in surprise. “You sure know a lot about vampires.”

“Oh, I thought that was common knowledge?”

Jaemin just looked at Yangyang in disbelief.

“I guess I just read a lot of books and stuff as a kid.” Yangyang shrugged. “Anyways, I’m definitely on team Jacob, he's way hotter than Edward.”

“I’m totally with you on that one,” Jaemin said, taking a sip of his coffee. 

They continued their conversation on the way back to their dorm.

Later that night, Jaemin turned to Yangyang who was sitting at his desk, working on his German homework. “Hey Yangyang?”

“Yes?”

“I just wanted to thank you for earlier. I know I was being dramatic about my chem test and you didn’t try to invalidate my feelings or anything, you were just there for me and I want to thank you for that. It really means a lot to me.”

“Um, yeah of course. I mean that’s what friends are for, right?”

“Yeah, but not everyone is as considerate.”

“Well, I’ll try to always be there for you.”

“And me for you,” Jaemin said with a smile.

“Cool.” Yangyang turned back to his homework and Jaemin hoped that he didn’t make things too awkward with that conversation. 

He watched Yangyang furrow his brow as he focused and muttered something in German under his breath. Yangyang really was cute when he was focusing. It made Jaemin want to go over to him, squeeze his cheeks, and give him a hug. But Jaemin held himself back, he had already cuddled up next to Yangyang a lot today and humans usually had a limit to how much cuddling they could take.

Even among Faeries, Jaemin was a little excessive, but no one had ever really minded beyond Jeno occasionally shifting Jaemin off of his lap so that he could actually do stuff and not be stuck in one place. 

Yangyang really was exceptional for a human, and cute, too. 

When Jaemin was laying in bed a few hours later and his last thought in his head before he drifted off to sleep was of Yangyang, he realized that he might like his roommate.

\--------------------

Yangyang had enjoyed cuddling Jaemin, probably more than he wanted to admit to himself. Jaemin’s hair had been so soft, though, so nice to run his hands through. And the way that he had looked when Yangyang entered the room, Yangyang had just felt the need to help him, to make him feel better, to bring back the smile that normally adorned his face. 

That weekend found the two of them sitting next to each other on the floor, watching a movie on Jaemin’s laptop. To be honest, Yangyang wasn’t quite sure what movie it was, Jaemin had just queued one up and Yangyang hadn’t been paying attention, distracted by making a makeshift couch out of pillows and blankets for them to sit on. 

Now they were huddled next to each other under a blanket and Jaemin had his arm slung around Yangyang’s shoulder.

Yangyang was pretty sure he was about to spontaneously combust any minute. He was hyper-aware of every inch of Jaemin’s skin touching his own, how every shift brought them closer together. 

Jaemin was just watching the movie, engrossed in the storyline, while Yangyang was dying on the inside. Every once in a while Jaemin would make some comment to Yangyang about what was happening on the screen and Yangyang would just hum in affirmation as if he had any idea at all what Jaemin was talking about. 

Halfway through the movie, Jaemin rested his head on Yangyang’s shoulder and Yangyang thought that he was going to have a heart attack. It took him another ten minutes to work up the courage to reach his hand up and start to run his fingers through Jaemin’s hair, remembering how much the other had seemed to like it the other day. 

The minute Yangyang’s hands touched Jaemin’s hair, he felt the other relax into the touch and Yangyang smiled to himself, happy that he had made the right choice. For someone who had platinum blonde hair that had clearly been bleached several times, Jaemin’s hair was really soft. 

When the movie finished, Jaemin pulled away from Yangyang to close his computer screen. “How did you like it?”

“It was good,” Yangyang answered, having absolutely no clue what the movie was about.

Jaemin laughed. “It’s okay, I know that you were spaced out for most of it. What were you thinking about?”

A cold wash of fear ran through Yangyang’s body. “Nothing much, just some compsci stuff. I was thinking of how to get my code to work.”

Jaemin groaned. “It’s Saturday night, homework is reserved for Sundays.”

“It’s technically Sunday.”

Jaemin checked his phone. “It’s already midnight? Where did the time go?” He flopped dramatically back onto the ground. “Fine go work on your code then. I will just lay here and contemplate life.”

“I could have sworn you weren’t a philosophy major.” Yangyang laid down next to Jaemin. 

“Yeah well, I’m an engineering major which means that I have to evaluate my life choices at least once a week as I stress about my classes.”

“I thought that’s what your plants were for.”

“I don’t know about that. Archie is really stressing me out, they have way too many opinions.”

“Archie?”

“The orchid. Their name is Archie and they’re a pain in my ass. If you ever want a plant, get a succulent or something, they’re low maintenance.” Jaemin sighed. “And I bet Archie heard me and is now going to do something dramatic like wilt overnight.”

“After all the effort you spent on them?”

“Yes. They’ve done it before.”

Jaemin and Yangyang laid on the floor together for several minutes in silence before Jaemin finally got up. “I’m going to go to bed. I have an engineering project to do tomorrow and I don’t feel like doing anything productive tonight.”

“Good night! I’m going to finally work on that code!” It was a lie. Yangyang didn’t have a code to work on, it was just the first thing that had come to mind when he was panicking about paying attention to Jaemin instead of the movie. Maybe he would work on his calc homework. He was way too awake to go to bed anytime soon.

\---------------------------

A week and a half later found Jaemin bent over the notes on his desk, hands gripping his hair as he studied for his midterms next week. There was just so much information to absorb and physics and chem were kicking his butt. 

Jaemin face planted into his notes with a groan. What was thermodynamics and why did it matter in the slightest?

Just when Jaemin was about to give up, the door slammed open and Yangyang came running in. “Jaemin! Are you down for Donghyuck coming over tomorrow at like 5:00 so we can study physics together?”

“Sure, studying in groups is always better anyways. Or at least when it’s you two it is, since you actually understand physics.”

“Amazing! I’ll text him. Oh and do you want to play a game tonight?”

“A game? With who? And I have to study.”

“Just the two of us, and I was thinking Twister. It’s physical, so it’ll get the blood flowing and be a nice break from sitting at your desk all day. There’s only so much studying you can do before your brain gets fried.”

“I was going to go out for dinner with Jeno.”

“We can play Twister afterwards.” Yangyang noticed the doubt on Jaemin’s face. “Just one short game. Please? For me? Or else I’ll tell Jeno that you’re working yourself to an early grave with all of the studying you’ve been doing.”

“Fine, we can play Twister, but you have to let me study in peace before and afterwards.”

“Deal,” Yangyang said with a smile. 

After a normal dinner with Jeno, Jaemin returned back to the dorm to see the Twister mat already spread out on the floor.

“Ready to play?” Yangyang asked.

“Let me put down my keys first. Why do you want to play so bad?”

“Because it’s a fun game and you need to relax and have some fun. Plus it’s a game that I can definitely win.”

“Oh, you think that you can win?” 

Yangyang smiled as Jaemin’s competitive side came out. “Yes, I’m definitely more flexible than you.” 

“Oh I doubt that.” Jaemin stood on the opposite side of the mat than Yangyang. “Spin the spinner and we’ll see how this turns out.”

Yangyang spun and they both put their left foot on green. Jaemin spun next and their left hands landed on red. 

Several minutes later and they had all four limbs on the ground, having to twist at weird angles to reach the spinner, but neither of them so much as wavered even as Yangyang had to twist his torso at an uncomfortable angle to reach blue with his right hand. 

They spun again and when the spinner read right foot on blue, Jaemin reached his foot as far as possible into Yangyang’s side.

“What are you doing?” Yangyang asked.

“Making things interesting,” Jaemin responded as he spun and put his left hand on green, again reaching as far over to Yanyang as possible. Yangyang was impressed that he could have his limbs spread so far out without falling over.

A couple of turns later and Jaemin slammed his side into Yangyang’s, but the other managed to hold strong and not topple over. The next turn, Yangyang did the same and Jaemin looked as if he was going to fall, but he stayed upright by some miracle. Then, the next color-limb combination was called and Jaemin was reaching his leg over Yangyang to the red circle on the other side of his body.

Left hand on yellow was called next and before Yangyang could move, Jaemin was reaching his hand over Yangyang so that the other was trapped beneath him, arm struggling to support the added weight of Jaemin’s body. 

“What are you going to do now?” Jaemin laughed into Yangyang’s ear.

“This.” Yangyang slammed into Jaemin’s arm which crumpled under Yangyang’s body weight hitting it. But Yangyang hadn’t planned out that move very well; now all of Jaemin’s weight was on him and his arms couldn’t handle the added strain and gave out, Jaemin landing right on top of him. 

“I won,” Jaemin proudly announced, staring into Yangyang’s eyes as if daring him to say otherwise.

Yangyang opened his mouth to protest, but Jaemin winked at him and Yangyang just ended up with his mouth hanging open stupidly.

“What? Did I make you nervous?” Jaemin whispered into Yangyang’s ear. He knew that he should probably get off of the other and stop torturing him, but it was just so fun and Yangyang looked so cute when he was speechless. 

Yangyang finally shut his mouth when Jaemin pulled away slightly to fully take in the look on his face. He looked so overwhelmed, but also, his lips looked so plump, Jaemin was tempted to kiss them.

As Yangyang continued to stare up at Jaemin, his chest heaving and lips slightly apart, Jaemin decided to go for it. He leaned in close to Yangyang’s ear once more. “Can I kiss you?” he whispered.

A full body shudder went through Yangyang before he responded with a breathy “Yes.”

Jaemin connected their lips together briefly before pulling away, but Yangyang surged up to connect their lips once more in a much more passionate kiss that left them both breathless. 

Jaemin finally rolled off of Yangyang as they both gasped for air. “Wow, that was really… something.”

“Yeah,” Yangyang responded. “So do you like, like me? Or was that just a friend thing? Because it’s totally cool either way, I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page and--”

“Yangyang.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you usually kiss your friends? Especially like that?”

“I mean no.”

“Then maybe it’s safe to assume that I like you as more than a friend.” Jaemin couldn’t help but smile. Yangyang really wasn’t the smartest when it came to crushes.

“Oh, I, uh, like you too, but I, uh… don’t think I’m ready for a boyfriend.” Yangyang felt horrible saying it, but there was no way he could safely date a human without his magic coming into play. The only reason why the room wasn’t absolutely wrecked by wind right now was the fact that Yangyang had used his magic extensively while Jaemin was at dinner. 

“That’s perfectly fine. We can take this at whatever pace you want. In fact, we can just wait until after midterms to talk about this, or not at all and pretend it never happened.” Jaemin would be surprised if they never talked about the kiss again. Yangyang had been very clearly into it, but he didn’t want to make his roommate uncomfortable.

“Yeah, until after midterms is good.”

“Amazing, now I believe you told me that I could study after we played a round of Twister.” And with that Jaemin was heading back to his desk, leaving Yangyang laying on the ground, feeling as if his whole body was tingling as he tried to process what on earth had just happened. 

\----------------------------------

Jaemin didn’t see much of Yangang the day following, but it wasn't unusual for a Friday, Jaemin had class before Yangyang even woke up and he would spend his small breaks in between classes either sitting in the quad or in the library since it wasn’t worth it to walk all the way back to the dorm just to turn around 5 minutes later to go to his next class. 

In physics, however, Jaemin did see Donghyuck who sat down next to Jaemin and said, “So you and Yangyang, huh?”

“He told you about that?”

Donghyuck laughed, “I got so many texts from him in all caps screaming about it.”

“Positive or negative?” 

“Definitely positive.”

Jaemin sighed in relief. “Okay good, he seemed really hesitant afterwards and we said that we’d talk about it later, after midterms when we aren’t all stressed out and stuff.”

“Yangyang is an idiot.” Donghyuck looked like he was going to say more, but the professor decided to start his lecture right then and Jaemin had forgotten all about it by the end of class when he wished Donghyuck goodbye.

“See you later!” Donghyuck waved, running off, his bag bouncing against his back. 

Jaemin rolled his eyes, Donghyuck’s next class wasn’t for three hours, so he had no clue where the other was going in such a hurry, but it wasn’t out of character for Donghyuck to be running everywhere. Maybe he forgot to do an assignment and was headed to the library or something. 

Jaemin went back to the dorm after his engineering class and was surprised to see that Yangyang wasn’t home. On Fridays Yangyang only had his computer science class that he shared with Donghyuck, but then again, someone needed to let Donghyuck into the dorms and it was 4:50 already. 

Jaemin got out his physics notes and was in the process of watering his plants when Donghyuck and Yangyang entered the room, both of them loudly talking about code or something. 

However, when Donghyuck entered their dorm room he went suddenly silent and tilted his head as if he was thinking really hard about something. 

“Why does your dorm smell like magic?” Donghyuck asked and Jaemin felt his blood run cold. 

“What do you mean it smells like magic?” Yangyang asked.

“Seriously guys, your apartment reeks. What the hell are you doing in here?”

Jaemin’s heart sank. Apparently the febreeze he sprayed wasn’t enough to cover up the magic of the various small spells he had for his plants. But why hadn’t Yangyang noticed it? Was Donghyuck just really sensitive to magic?

“It smells like magic?” Yangyang asked. He really was clueless, but Jaemin felt like he was glued in place, too scared to say anything. 

“Yes it smells strongly of magic! There’s no way that you guys can’t notice it, so what is going on? You really shouldn’t be using those black market spells and stuff, they’re really dangerous for humans, our bodies aren’t equipped to handle magic.”

“Black market spells?” Jaemin found himself asking. “Those exist?” How did those even work? Did they bind the spell to an object? But how would that help humans? He would have to ask Jeno about it later. 

While Jaemin was spacing out trying to figure out how black market spells worked, Donghyunk turned to Yangyang. “Have you been using black market spells, then? Those can kill you, you know. They’re not something to play around with, especially when Jaemin has no clue what they are.”

“No, I’m a Faerie, you have it wrong,” Jaemin said at the same time that Yangyang said “Wait no, I’m an Elf.”

“You're an Elf?” Jaemin asked at the same time Yangyang said “You’re a Faerie?”

Donghyuck just stared at them. “You really didn’t know that about each other? And I figured it out within two seconds of stepping in your dorm? You two are useless.”

“Hey, you didn’t have it totally figured out. You thought we were using black market spells or whatever.” Yangyang defended while Jaemin stood there in shock, trying to figure out how the hell he missed that his roommate was an Elf. Donghyuck was right, how could he be so clueless? And did Jeno and Renjun know and just not tell them? They must have, there is no way that Renjun, an Elf, didn’t know that Yangyang was also an Elf.

“Hold on,” Donghyuck sat down. “We need to talk about this. Like how did you two not know? What is even going on?”

Jaemin sank to the floor. “Honestly I have no clue.”

Yangyang also sat down and looked at Jaemin. “So you’re a Faerie? Have you just not flown since you came here? What do your wings look like?”

“I flew once with Jeno a couple weeks ago, the time that I scraped up my face and side was actually from flying into a tree during a race, not biking into it.”

“You flew into a tree?” Donghyuck snickered.

“Yes. And my wings just look like wings? You’ve definitely seen Faeries before, Yangyang.”

“No, I meant like the color and stuff.”

“I want to see your wings!” Donghyuck chimed in. “I bet they’re really pretty!”

“Fine, but I want to know what kind of magic Yangyang has while I change into a shirt with slits in the back for you guys.”

Donghyuck excitedly turned to Yangyang while Jaemin changed.

Yangyang just sighed. “I have air elemental magic.” He made one of the notebooks float in the air and Donghyuck gasped in excitement. “And before you ask, yes I do have to use my magic almost everyday so that it doesn’t explode and I can make a person fly, but not for very long and it makes me tired so I won’t be demonstrating.” At that last part, Yangyang sent a pointed look to Donghyuck who slumped in his seat.

“It would have been fun, though,” he muttered.

Jaemin, in the meantime, had finished changing and let his wings fully extend, sighing in relief as he did so. Fridays were always tricky to find a time to let his wings stretch out since he was gone for most of the day with his classes, but now he supposed that he could stretch out his wings whenever he wanted in the dorm since Yangyang now knew his secret. 

“Your wings are so pretty! How do they fold against your back like that?”

“Um, I use my muscles in my back to fold them down?” Jaemin was slightly confused by Donghyuck’s question. 

“And they’re purple! I’ve never seen purple wings before, are they common?”

“Not really,” Yangyang answered for Jaemin. “Kind of like humans having blue eyes. Most wings are blue or pink, purple is actually a mutation.” Yangyang reached out his hand towards Jaemin’s wings. “May I?”

Jaemin nodded his approval and Yangyang gently ran his fingers over the translucent surface, making Jaemin shiver at the slight tickle. 

“Jaemin’s wings are made up of tiny scales covering the thin membrane for a little extra protection. But the scales right here are growing back. The tree?”

“Yeah, the tree,” Jaemin confirmed

“They also have two parts,” Yangyang continued, “the lower one helps him to turn when flying while the upper one is in charge of actually making him fly, kind of like a butterfly.”

“Cool, can I touch them?”

“No!” Yangyang and Jaemin exclaimed at the same time.

“Aw, why no?” Donghyuck pouted.

“They’re really sensitive and delicate and if you touch them in the wrong way then it can really hurt. I grew up among Faeries, so I know how to touch their wings.”

“Alright. Now if you don’t mind, I have a few more questions.”

Needless to say, very little physics got done that night as Jaemin and Yangyang answered Donghyuck’s plethora of questions. 

After Donghyuck left, Jaemin and Yangyang stared at each other in disbelief. 

“How the fuck did I not feel your wings when we cuddled?”

“You know, I wondered that myself, then just figured it was a stroke of luck, or you did feel them and just doubted yourself because you knew nothing of the supernatural. And I mean I did smell your magic a couple of times, but I honestly thought it was just my magic rubbing off on you and you were just clueless about magical stuff.”

“We’re both clueless,” Yangyang sighed. “But also when we kissed you were totally willing to date a human? How were you going to deal with the wing thing?”

“Um,” Jaemin ran his hand through his hair. “To be completely honest, I hadn’t gotten that far yet. I just kind of reacted on impulse and you kissed me back, so I was like yes amazing. I guess I obviously would have told you and just hoped that you didn’t hate me and want to change roommates? But I mean Donghyuck handled that really well, so I guess not all humans are prejudiced against the supernatural.”

“Wow, the whole reason I asked to talk about the dating thing later is because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep my magic under control and I wanted to wait to judge you and see if it was safe to tell you that I was an Elf so that we could date.”

“So you do want to date me?” Jaemin asked. 

“Yeah, of course I do! I’ve had the biggest crush on you for the longest time.”

Jaemin practically pounced on Yangyang, bringing the other into his arms. “So it’s official? We’re dating?”

“Yeah,” Yangyang smiled. “Go out to Starbucks together tomorrow?”

“And confront Jeno and Renjun afterwards because there’s no way that they didn’t both know that we were supernatural?”

“It’s a date!”

\--------------------------

After having a very nice date at Starbucks, where they discussed how different the Fae Realm was from the human one under a glamor that Jaemin actually remembered the cloaking spell for this time, Yangyang and Jemin showed up at Jeno’s and Renjun’s dorm holding hands. 

Jeno opened the door and looked at the two of them and then turned around and called “Renjun I need moral support for what’s about to happen.” 

Renjun appeared at the doorframe surprisingly quickly and sighed. “Do you two know?”

“Yep,” Yangyang smiled, entering the room with Jaemin. 

“Renjun, you owe me a honeycomb,” Jeno said and Renjun groaned in response. 

“I knew I should have changed my bet,” he muttered.

“Wait, you two made a bet out of this?” Jaemin asked, glaring at both of them. 

“Yes, a bet that I just lost. How did you guys finally figure it out?”

“Well, actually, Donghyuck asked us why our room smelled of magic, accused us of using black market spells and then we both confessed,” Yangyang explained. 

Renjun and Jeno turned to look at each other in disbelief. “Does this technically count as me winning if their friend had to tell them?” Renjun asked.

“No, the timing is more important, plus that isn’t what you guessed would happen, cough up that honeycomb.”

Renjun sighed. “Yangyang, do you at least have more control over your magic?”

“No, not really. Stuff still flies all over.”

“Did one good thing come out of this?”

“Well, we’re dating,” Jaemin said, holding up their intertwined hands.

Renjun threw up his hands. “What is this? Some sort of romance novel? Jeno, do you want to kiss next?”

“Um, not particularly?”

“Thank god there’s at least one reasonable person here. I don’t know why I’m friends with you, Yangyang.”

“It’s because all of your other friends are still in the Fae Realm because they’re not crazy enough to go to a human college.”

“That’s true, and speaking of which, Jeno and I were studying for our biology midterm when you bust in and made me one honeycomb poorer, so if you want to have a in-depth conversation about this, then fine, but it will have to wait until after midterms.”

“Fine, I just thought we should tell you the news.” Yangyang hauled Jaemin to his feet and towards the door.

“Jeno, we’re still on for flying next weekend, right?” Jaemin asked as Yangyang opened the door.

“Yes, we are. And thank you for letting the whole hall know that.”

“Oops, I doubt they heard anything.”

Jeno rolled his eyes as Jaemin and Yangyang left.

\-----------------------

Midterms passed and Jaemin actually didn’t fail physics like he feared he would, he got a C, which was technically still passing even if Yangyang boasted about his 89.4% for the rest of the day. 

That weekend flying with Jeno was fun and Jaemin didn’t even run into a tree this time. 

When Jaemin got back, he noticed a new plant among all of his others. “Yangyang, am I imagining things or did a new plant just appear on my windowsill?” 

“Oh,” Yangyang looked up from the gaem on his computer. “I got you that one! It looked like it was going to die and I knew that’s your favorite to take care of!” 

Jaemin wrapped Yangyang in a back hug. “Date night tonight?”

“Of course.” Yangyang pecked Jaemin on the lips. “Now please go shower, you’re all sweaty and gross.”

“Your wish is my command.” Jaemin gave Yangyang a sweeping bow before grabbing his towel and shower caddy and heading out of their dorm to the showers.

Yangyang smiled to himself. Jaemin was an idiot, but he was his idiot.

**Author's Note:**

> huge thanks to my beta! 
> 
> please leave a comment! I would love to hear what you think!!
> 
> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/6_intricate)   
>  [twitter](https://twitter.com/6_intricate)


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